Jean Vial had been murdered in Provence. Four men were accused; two were held in prison, two were on the run, among them one named Jourdan. The sentence was executed in person upon the two captives, and in effigy against the two contumacious fugitives, Jourdan and a certain Gaspard.
The veil that this judgment cast over Jourdan’s innocence, records the Gazette, was soon torn asunder. On their way to the scaffold, the two condemned men affirmed that Jourdan had taken part neither directly nor indirectly in the murder, and that he had known nothing of it, either before or after the deed. A decree of June 1st ordered that their declarations be subjoined to the trial records.
Yet Jourdan knew nothing of this. He learned only of his condemnation. For years he wandered from province to province, accompanied by a son then fifteen years of age, who eventually settled in Spain, entered a commercial house, and rose to become one of its principal partners.
The son did not forget his father. His wish was to return with him to France and see his name cleared. He wrote letters, made inquiries, sought information; at last, he learned of the declarations of the two condemned men, which established his father’s innocence. Whereupon, says the Gazette, commerce, business, friends, self-interest—all were cast aside. He hastened to his father and implored him to present himself before his judges: “If the rigor of legal forms and the gravity of the accusation subject you to temporary confinement and a grueling trial, I shall share the burden with you. Why does the judicial order not permit me to bear it all alone?” The father threw himself into his arms, and the son brought him back to Aix, to the feet of Justice.
There remained a question of law: was it not too late? Under ordinary law, the statute of limitations for any crime expires after twenty years. But when a sentence has been executed in effigy, the period of prescription is extended to thirty; and Jourdan, executed in effigy twenty-nine years before, was still within the term. By a decree of May 19, 1781, the Parlement of Aix discharged him of the accusation, ordering the ruling printed and posted.
One year more, and the law would have shielded him from punishment without restoring his honor. It had turned upon a single year—and a devoted son.
Gazette des tribunaux, 1786, Parlement of Aix, decree of May 19, 1781, clearing the Sieur Jourdan of the accusation of murdering Jean Vial.